My father, Fred Stone, who has died aged 89, was a precision engineer and toolmaker as well as an expert model train maker.
In the 1970s and 80s he built a successful toolmaking business in Brighton, East Sussex, supporting local companies such as Dugard and Brighton Sheet Metal. As well as components for white goods, his small workshop in Brighton’s Farm Road helped make parts for jobs as different as the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine toy, Brighton’s floral clock, and thousands of T-shaped trucks that powered the UK’s first skateboard craze in the late 70s.
Fred was born in London to James, a machinist and labourer at Woolwich dockyards, and Mabel (nee Taylor). He stayed in London during the blitz, as Mabel refused to let him be evacuated.
Leaving school at 14, he served an apprenticeship in engineering at the Atomic Work Research Establishment, which was briefly based on Woolwich Common. He was in the last age group to do national service, with the Royal Engineers at Aldershot, and then in 1962 moved to Brighton, where, later that year after a short courtship, he married Janet DeLacy, who went on to run a dog-grooming business.
He then worked for several local firms, including Brighton Sheet Metal, becoming a shop steward for the AEU before leaving to set up his own business. He retired from work in 2009 and closed down the firm at the same time.
Fred’s model engineering was exceptional, and he was able to sell his locomotives privately, also exhibiting them at the annual Model Engineer exhibition at Wembley Conference centre and the Brighton Modelworld exhibition at the Brighton centre.
An avid footballer and fan, he took his sons to see Brighton and Hove Albion for the first time in 1973 and was there at the Amex, with his grandchildren, when they were promoted to the Premier League in 2017.
In retirement Fred was devoted to daily dog walks around Hove Park, buying the Guardian every day and maintaining an impeccable garden.
Janet died in 2009. He is survived by three children, Jonathon, Amanda and me, and five grandchildren.
